I Shouldn't Have to Prove You're Not a Monster
by Roe Dusk
Summary: Almost a sick fic. Sephiroth ends up in Cloud's care still thinking he was in the right, but weakened almost beyond recognition. A challenge to myself to write Sephiroth as evil and Jenova as his puppet, not the other way arround as I usually do.
1. Endings as Beginnings aka Prologue

Ok. A friend of mine said she doesn't like stories with Original Characters, so this is my attempt to write a story without an important OC. Of course, I cannot claim I did not have any OCs, because, technically, the random scientists and assistants are OCs, but whatever...

This takes place a little while after Advent Children.

Please Enjoy! If you don't, feel free to criticize, it's actually appreciated for this experiment (tho I would prefer if it was constructive).

And if you want to guess who the mysterious speciman is, go ahead, I think there are only about two possibilities.

* * *

**Endings as Beginnings  
****(a.k.a. Prologue)**

* * *

He couldn't move. He'd been alright when he was fighting Cloud, why could he suddenly not move?

Mother?

He couldn't hear her.

Mother? Where are you?

No answer.

It started to rain after a little while, and he winced as the droplets hit his face, hard. He barely registered the sound of footsteps in his semiconscious state.

"Oh. And what have we here?" a slippery male voice asked.

That was not the voice he wanted to hear. You are not mother. He managed to twist his head away from the speaker in dismissal.

"Don't be that way," the voice chuckled, coming closer, "We've only just met. And I want to get to know you better." Suddenly, there was a hand grasping his jaw, forcefully twisting it around, baring his neck. "Now, this will only hurt a bit…" the voice assured him in a sickeningly false caring voice.

He couldn't move, and shuddered inwardly as a needle stabbed into his neck, a chill numbing spreading through him from the stab point.

_Mother? _He called into the darkness as he lost consciousness. _Where did you go?_


	2. Doing the WRO a Favor

And the first section of the story, where, miraculously, Cloud somehow got involved!

* * *

**Doing the WRO a Favor**

* * *

Cloud Strife pulled up in front of a depressing looking grey building and parked his bike. Sighing, he leaned back and flipped open his phone. "Reeve. It's Cloud," he said quietly, running a hand through his hair to check for leaves or twigs he might have picked up on the ride over.

"Cloud? You're there already?" Reeve's voice asked happily.

"I'm sitting in front of the lab right now," Cloud sighed, "Remind me why I'm here."

"You're doing me a big favor," Reeve assured him, "Just inspect the lab, and I'll be there as soon as I can to verify your certification decision."

"Ok, Reeve. Go to your meeting," Cloud reminded him, "I want you to get here by the time I'm done."

"Thanks, Cloud."

"No problem." Cloud snapped his phone closed, walked over to the front door of the laboratory, and knocked, loudly, once.

An assistant greeted him at the door, "Welcome, Mr. Strife. I will show you around the lower security laboratories. Then the professors will take you to inspect their labs."

Cloud nodded, "Thank you. May we begin?"

"Yes, sir. Please follow me."

Cloud straightened as he followed the assistant inside. He was representing the WRO, he should do his best to look like it. "Let's get this over with," he muttered under his breath.

* * *

Two hours later, Cloud couldn't decide which was worse; Being shown complicated lab set ups with no explanation by grudging professors, or having his ears burned of by the overly enthusiastic ones.

The assistant finished his part of the tour and turned Cloud over to the head of the monster research department for the beginning of the second part of his tour. The professor in question was short and skinny with curly white hair that clung, oily, around his head in long strands. Cloud disliked him instantly, and had to take several calming breaths to remind himself that slimy, weasely looking scientists weren't automatically his enemies anymore.

"What does your department do?" Cloud asked, needing to escape from his own thoughts.

"We gather samples from monsters and catalogue them, so we know which ones have what poisons and defenses, and such… Then we run tests on either culture samples or captive monsters to see if they're effected by certain acids, poisons, antidotes, etc."

Cloud felt a twinge of misgiving at the professor's easy admittance of animal testing. As the professor lead him through a few labs and holding areas, he reminded himself that, according to current WRO regulations, this kind of testing was allowed. They were working on changing that, but it would take time.

Cloud breathed a silent sigh of relief when the professor told him they were almost finished.

Stopping outside a laboratory door, the professor turned to him with a comraderly smile, "You're in luck, Mr. Strife. We were just setting up for an experiment when you arrived."

Cloud tried not to fidget, having a sinking suspicion where this was going. He barely managed; the professor's assumption that he would enjoy the experience making him feel ill.

The professor took his silence as awe and nodded sagely, before turning to open the door, "You should feel honored. This is our most prized specimen. It was picked up about half a year ago. I couldn't believe our luck; it was to weakened to even fight back."

Cloud braced himself as the door slid open, and followed the professor into the lab.

"Look over there," the professor suggested, gesturing, as he pulled on plastic gloves and picked up a syringe, "Isn't it amazing?"

Cloud glanced around the door and froze.

The professor was still talking, "There is so much we can learn. Such a perfect replica! It's a bit exciting. I'm thinking of starting experiments on human reinforcement hypotheses…" The doctor checked the black liquid in the syringe before turning to Cloud with a smile, "Now. Are you ready for me to begin?"

Cloud dragged his gaze away from the test subject strapped, unconscious, to the table, and stared at the professor in horror.

"No!" he exclaimed in utter shock before snatching the syringe from the professor and smashing it forcefully back onto the tray. It cracked and started leaking.

Ignoring the professor's distressed protests, Cloud whipped out his phone and breathlessly jabbed out a number.

* * *

Reeve jumped as his phone rang and banged his head on the curved wall of the helicopter. Waving at Rude's alarmed glance to show he was ok, he flipped the phone open, "This is Reeve."

"Reeve!" Cloud's voice screamed in his ear and Reeve almost dropped the phone. Even Rude heard it and craned his neck around again to look at Reeve in surprise as Cloud's voice continued, "Get down here right now! I don't care if you're still in that meeting!"

Meeting Rude's alarmed look with one of his own, Reeve strained his hearing for any sound of danger on the other side, "What's wrong?"

There was a pause, and Reeve fidgeted nervously.

Rude watched him, trying to divide his attention equally between the WRO Head and flying the helicopter.

Finally Cloud's voice replied, cautiously, "I really don't know how to explain… It's… You're going to have to come see for yourself." The blond's voice laughed tiredly, "I'm not in any danger, really. I just need backup, soon."

A whiny exclamation wormed it's way out of the phone.

"No, you may not!" Cloud's voice snapped, and the call ended suddenly.

Reeve blinked in surprise, then noticed Rude watching him. He shrugged, "Let's hurry." Rude gave him a quick nod and turned his complete attention back to flying. Reeve sat back down to keep from injuring himself as the helicopter accelerated. All he could do now was wait more or less patiently for them to arrive.


	3. Departures

And yea, it's Sephiroth on the lab table, go figure.

I'm challenging myself to make him insane and the evil mastermind of the original game, but still redeemable.

If Tifa and Cloud are bwing too mature, tell me how to make it better please, but I'm trying to make it post-AC maturity, and not teenager maturity.

* * *

**Departures**

* * *

Reeve stood hurriedly as soon as the helicopter touched down and managed not to fall over as it settled into its own weight. He stepped outside and waited distractedly for Rude to finish the post flight checks and join him. Curious, and a little worried, Reeve was reminding himself again that a Rufus had sent him a bodyguard to protect him, and that would only work if he waited, when Rude walked over with a nod to show he was ready.

They were met at the front door of the tired grey building by an assistant. "Welcome, Mr. Tuesti. Mr. Strife has instructed me to show you down to the higher security labs as soon as you arrived. We may proceed as soon as you are ready."

"Lets get going then," Reeve managed cheerfully and the Assistant turned to lead them down a hallway.

A flight of stairs and a few too many turns later he stopped in front of a set of double doors and gestured towards them, "Mr. Strife is awaiting you inside, Mr Tuesti. If you do not mind, I will wait for you out here, as I do not have clearance for this laboratory."

"Thank you," Reeve replied absently as he pushed open the nearest door and stepped inside.

He was met with chaos, and not Vincent this time. Cloud was snatching a vial from a slimy looking scientist that he was fending off with one hand while adding the implement to a growing pile on the table behind him. Papers had fallen from their respective tables and file folders during the disagreement, and littered the floor sporadically.

"I said No! Absolutely not," Cloud was saying angrily, "There will be no more experimentation, Doctor, I won't allow it."

"But why not…?" The scientist wined somewhat nasally, "Just a quick demonstration…"

"Cloud," Reeve broke in, and the two combatants turned to look at him. "What is going on here?" he finished quietly.

"He's trying to interfere with my work…" the scientist began, but a Cloud interrupted him.

"Reeve," he said firmly, "There's something you need to see."

"Unnerved, but still curious, Reeve followed Cloud around a hastily erected curtain and froze, Rude coming up behind to make sure he was alright.

Strapped securely to a metal table, unconscious, was Sephiroth.

Rude looked slightly ill, and Reeve could only stammer, "What…? How…?"

Cloud looked grim, "The apparently found him half a year ago, too weak to fight back, and decided to drug him and drag him back here for study. He's been kept under the whole time, and they're trying to categorize him under their monster classification system."

He all but spat out the last few words and Reeve looked over at him worriedly, "Cloud… What do you want me to do?"

"I want to get him out of here," Cloud answered firmly, and Reeve started, "I'll take him with me if I have to."

"Cloud, he's dangerous. What are you going to do with him when he wakes up?" Reeve asked in shock.

"I don't know!" Cloud snapped, "But not even he deserves this!" His voice fell dangerously, "It's probably even because of something like this that he tried to destroy the world the first time."

Reeve remembered Hojo all to well, and nodded slowly.

"You'll have to work out what to do with him later, for now, let's get him out of here."

Cloud looked up at him in surprise and then nodded. They released all the restraints and lowered Sephiroth's unconscious form from the table, in spite of the Doctor's protest. Rude ended the discussion of who was going to carry him by picking the silver-haired man up himself, "Let's go."

The assistant lead them out of the lab and Cloud turned to Reeve, "Make sure you get him hired somewhere else after this place shuts down, he's been more than helpful."

Reeve nodded and then helped Cloud strap Sephiroth into one of the seats before signing off on Cloud's denial of certification for human testing.

* * *

It was on the helicopter ride back that the doubts set in.

Cloud wondered how he was going to take care of Sephiroth and keep Tifa and the children safe at the same time. He brought this up to Reeve, and the WRO commissioner assured him that between him and his mysterious benefactor, they could get Cloud a house outside of Edge for him to base out of until they figured out what to do with Sephiroth.

Surprisingly, it was Rude who spoke up next. "Rufus will think this is his responsibility," the bald man observed quietly. Cloud and Reeve both agreed after a moment's thought. "What should we do about it?" Cloud asked Rude, and the silent man pondered that for a while.

Just when they were beginning to think he wouldn't answer, the Turk replied, very quietly, "Don't tell him."

Reeve's mouth thinned slightly into a frown, "We'll have to tell him sometime."

Rude just said, "Not now," and Reeve sighed.

Chewing his lip, Reeve glanced over at the unconscious former General, and sighed, glancing at Cloud's determined face before turning back to Rude. "I don't like lying to Rufus," he told the bald man, "But I'll wait until he's at least over the effects of his Geostigma before I tell him what we found."

Rude nodded and Reeve turned to Cloud, "You, on the other hand, are going to have to tell Tifa what's going on. No leaving her out of this. And I can put you up in an apartment of mine just outside Kalm until we find out Sephiroth's mental state."

Cloud nodded his acceptance of the terms, and Reeve sighed, "When we do tell Rufus, and when you tell Tifa, their first reaction will probably be to demand he face justice for what he did." Cloud winced and Reeve continued, "I don't know why you didn't react that way, Cloud, but you have to think about it before you tell Tifa about him, today."

"He's as human as the rest of us," Cloud murmured, and looked up, "Or he should have been, until Hojo got a hold of him. I don't know… I guess… seeing him in the lab like that, being called an animal specimen, made me remember that he probably lived his life like that." Cloud looked away, "Only 4 years of Hojo managed to nearly ruin my life. I can imagine living through that every day for years would make me want to destroy the planet too."

Reeve nodded sadly, "He was a good man, once, if a little distant. That's why I'm giving you this chance, Cloud. Either you can help him, somehow back from insanity, or you will have to strike him down again, for the Planet's sake."

Cloud swallowed and nodded, turning to look at his new charge as they continued back to Edge.

* * *

Tifa wasn't taking it quite as well as he had hoped. Under no circumstances did she want Sephiroth free to run around, and she certainly didn't want him in the same house as Cloud. Cloud explained how he'd found him and why he wanted to give the former General another chance, against even his own misgivings, and received only the grudging acceptance that he was going to be stubborn about it.

"Cloud, I can see where you're coming from, and I know you have as much reason to hate Sephiroth as I do, but I can't forgive him," Tifa told him shortly. She met Cloud's gaze firmly for a few moments before she sighed and shook her head, "But you just wouldn't be the Cloud I know if you let me sway you into giving this up."

She turned away from him for a long moment to think, then turned back to pin Cloud with a glare. "If there was a good man in there, and he is somehow still in there, under the insanity… I can't ever forgive the Sephiroth I know for killing my father, I can't. But…" She stalled for a moment against what she was about to say, before giving up and sighing loudly, "If you can find this good man Reeve remembers, and he can convince me he's changed, by getting down on his knees and begging me for forgiveness, I will believe him." She smiled humorlessly, "The Sephiroth I went after is incapable of that, even for a hidden agenda."

Cloud nodded mutely at that, and sighed, "Tifa, I don't know if I can forgive him either. But, if there is someone under what Hojo put him through, that has just been broken, like I was, he deserves someone to try and put him back together, like you did for me." The blond's eyes hardened, "But if there isn't, I promise you, I will kill him again."

"That's all I ask," Tifa growled. Then she forced a sad smile "Just check in with up from time to time, okay? Or I'll worry something happened to you." It was meant as a joke, but there was no humor in her eyes.

Cloud left Seventh Heaven feeling somehow colder than when he had arrived.


End file.
